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My reviews on the 9th Hamza Alavi Lecture

Yes yes I know, I have been throughly ignoring this blog for a while no, and I apologize to my blog immensely for that. But I am back now.. with hopes of not abandoning my baby ever again.

So what the hell is the 9th Hamza Alavi Memorial Lecture? Well Hamza Alavi was sort of the grandfather of the communist in Pakistan, and has worked immensely (seems like this is the word for today) towards the cause. he has a lots of books to his credits and had been a true activist for the cause that he believed in.And every year these lectures are held in his memory.

I am working with Arif Hasan nowadays, and he was invited as a Speaker to this lecture. I am not going to tell you how I felt or my reviews about it. Instead I am copying here my notes that i wrote that day before and during the lecture (no I don’t own a laptop to carry around with me, I still depend on the old technologies of a paper and pen.. and you know what, they work just fine. Thank you very much)

There are only two groups of people who are most aware of the city happenings and issues in this city (Karachi). one is this group of almost extinct diehard communist enthusiast and the other is the Lakson tobacco Building. The first group despite being knowledgable lacks some of the most basic polite attitudes – being on time, turning off your cell phone during the program, give respect to your guest, etc.

The last time I was here, I had fallen asleep. Arif Sahab however has promised me that this time it wont be the case. so far so true.

The introduction of Hamza Alavi and Arif Sahab is presented so “that the students can be made aware of these personalities”. There were 7 of us only. Arif Sahab looks burdened under his own list of achievements. He had claimed he would knock off the socks of this communist. I am dying to see what would happen !

He shared how he met Hamza Alavi – I knew this introduction… I was worried that it would end up insulting the selective group of people.

Program was supposed to start at 5,… people are still entering 6. we are so confident of our own incapability of system.

(The lecture continues . Some of the points I noted down I am just mentioning here)

Responsibility of feudalism under Britishers include structuring of land, To develop and maintain infrastructure of agriculture, Law and Order, Collection of revenue, Provide the results that government wanted in elections. Feudalism was defined as a nexus between the state and the land holders. this is not true. since the function that this nexus was given are not being fulfilled today.(He had some great facts and figures to dive his point home)

You should see the face of the conveynor. its worth seeing. He is completely stunned.

We just love to diss our President in some way or the other in any platform don’t we?

Arif Sahab said in reply to a question that this change will come but for him it will be like he life a movie in the middle without getting a chance to see the end.